38th Lecturer
NPR’s London correspondent Frank Langfitt has been selected to deliver the next Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.
Langfitt covers the UK and Ireland—notably the many developments surrounding Brexit and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic—as well as stories elsewhere in Europe. He previously, spent five years as an NPR correspondent covering China. Based in Shanghai, he drove a free taxi around the city for a series on a changing China as seen through the eyes of ordinary people. He expanded that reporting into the book, “The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China.”
Before moving to Shanghai, Langfitt was NPR’s East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi and before that was NPR’s labor correspondent based in Washington, D.C. He was a 2003 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
About the Award
The Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture is presented annually by an American overseas correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs who is invited to Harvard to discuss international reporting.
The lecture honors Joe Alex Morris Jr., a Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. A member of the Harvard class of 1949, Morris inherited an interest in international news from his father, who had served as foreign editor of United Press International and the New York Herald Tribune.
Joe Jr. worked as a local reporter at The Hartford Times and the Minneapolis Tribune before traveling abroad to work on assignment in Europe and then the Middle East for UPI, the New York Herald Tribune, Newsweek and later the Los Angeles Times. He reported from the Middle East for 25 years. In February 1979, he was killed in Tehran while covering a violent gun battle during the Iranian Revolution. He was 51 years old at the time.
Morris’ family, his Harvard classmates and his journalistic colleagues established the lectureship in his name in 1981. That same year, Morris posthumously received the Nieman Fellows’ Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity.
Lecturers
| 2020 | Frank Langfitt NPR’s London correspondent | |
| 2018 | Alfredo Corchado Mexico-border correspondent, The Dallas Morning News | Press release Videos |
| 2018 | Lynsey Addario Photojournalist | Press release Videos |
| 2016 | Kathleen Carroll Executive Editor and Senior Vice President, The Associated Press | Press release Videos |
| 2014 | Tyler Hicks Senior Photographer, The New York Times | Press release Videos |
| 2013 | Evan Osnos Staff writer, The New Yorker | Press release Videos |
| 2012 | C. J. Chivers Reporter, The New York Times | Press release Videos |
| 2012 | Ann Curry Co-anchor of NBC News’ “Today” Program | Press release News Article |
| 2011 | Dexter Filkins Reporter, The New Yorker | Press release |
| 2010 | David Rohde Reporter, The New York Times | Press release |
| 2009 | Gwen Thompkins East Africa Correspondent, National Public Radio | Press release |
| 2008 | Tim Golden Senior writer, The New York Times | Press release |
| 2007 | George Packer Author of The Assassins Gate: America in Iraq and a staff writer at The New Yorker | |
| 2006 | John Burns Baghdad bureau chief, The New York Times | |
| 2005 | Charlayne Hunter-Gault Johannesburg Bureau Chief, CNN | Press release |
| 2004 | Anthony Shadid Islamic affairs correspondent, The Washington Post | Press release |
| 2003 | Chris Hedges Reporter, The New York Times | |
| 2002 | Anne Garrels Roving Correspondent, National Public Radio | |
| 2001 | Roger Cohen Berlin Correspondent, The New York Times | Press release |
| 2000 | Jane Perlez The New York Times | |
| 1999 | Eason Jordan CNN | |
| 1998 | Michael Skoler National Public Radio | |
| 1997 | Ann Cooper National Public Radio | |
| 1996 | Thomas Friedman The New York Times | |
| 1995 | Jim Wooten ABC News | |
| 1994 | Deborah Amos ABC News, National Public Radio | |
| 1993 | R.W. Apple Jr. The New York Times | |
| 1992 | Peter Arnett CNN | |
| 1991 | Leslie Gelb The New York Times | |
| 1990 | Jonathan Randal The Washington Post | |
| 1989 | Nicholas Daniloff U.S. News & World Report | |
| 1988 | Harrison Salisbury The New York Times | |
| 1987 | Stanley Karnow King Features syndicated columnist | |
| 1986 | Peter Jennings ABC News | |
| 1985 | Jack Foisie Los Angeles Times | |
| 1984 | Eric Sevareid CBS News | |
| 1983 | Norman Kempster Los Angeles Times | |
| 1982 | Flora Lewis The New York Times |